Alaska Children’s Trust recognizes creating a better future for Alaska’s children must involve taking a closer look at our past. In recent years, the discovery of mass burial graves of Indigenous children at Canadian residential schools has forced both Canada and the United States to investigate the history of these institutions and assimilation policies. This past May, the U.S. Department of the Interior released their first investigative report on the federal American Indian/Alaska Native boarding school system. The report exposed the rampant physical, sexual, mental, and spiritual abuse these children suffered at the hand of these institutions to forcibly assimilate Native children. According to the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, there were thirty-three institutions identified on record that operated in Alaska.
Every Child Matters Day or Orange Shirt Day
The day was born in Canada — when a residential school survivor told the story of wearing an orange shirt that her grandmother bought for her, and then having it stripped off her when she arrived at a boarding school. It is recognized in Canada and the United States every year on September 30th, as a day to honor, recognize and never forget those children that were taken by the U.S. and Canadian Governments and sent to Residential/Boarding Schools for the purpose of American Indian/Alaska Native assimilation and erasure. September 30th is now recognized as a National Day of Remembrance for U.S. Indian Boarding Schools.
We are reaching out to learn of events planned and/or if we can plan together to create light from a dark place in our history to support ongoing efforts to heal from this collective trauma. We would like to invite you to the second virtual convening on Thursday, August 18, from 2-3 pm to begin coordinating efforts across Alaska and learn how ACT can best support and amplify these activities. We'd also love to learn your feedback on last years' toolkit for parents and providers for Every Child Matters Day. View the toolkit here and let us know feedback at the meeting or by replying to this email. You can register for the meeting here.
If you can’t make the meeting and would like to reach out, please do so, we would love to hear from you. Also, if you know of other individuals or organizations preparing events for September 30, please invite them to attend this meeting so we can learn how we can best come together across Alaska to honor, reflect, and support healing.